Sunday, August 29, 2010

Unmasked


"Mirror Mirror" by Dar Freeland
images & text © 1997-2011 Dar Freeland | all rights reserved

How much of our perceptions of the world, our inner thinking, beliefs and self-proclaimed truisms are evident - available for us to see - outside of ourselves? How many of us pay attention to the synchronicities and metaphors presented to us in the gallery of life?

If the Universe had a canvas, (which it does) like an artist (which it is) - would it draw each of us a personal painting of what it sees? (it does every minute).

Would we buy it?

What if we removed ourselves from our cyclical thinking, our patterned behavior, and our “that’s just the way it is” way of seeing things? What possibilities may be served up for us to learn? Can we give up our need to be in charge for long enough to learn anything? Are we all so wounded from the control of our historical baggage - that we will spend the remainder of our lives in the illusion that we can “avoid being controlled” - and therefore remain in a state of habitual calculation?

Do we truly believe that calculating anything, gives us any sort of real power?

We are “controlled” by nothing other than our own willingness to comply - our own giving up of our personal freedoms, diminishing our own muscle we call choice. Are we so convinced that because the world tries to tell us what to do (from its position of perceived superiority) and how it is (from it’s limited self-serving perspective) - that something “out there” is so much clearer about our own truth and inner strength than are we are? How much absolute and genuine control over our own destiny could we realize we have, simply by engaging fully with our own power - through the actions of becoming habitually conscious, discerning, open to exploration and utilizing the infinite resources available to us in a field of unlimited possibilities?

Who is really driving our destiny?

True power comes from surrender…and no, that doesn’t mean “giving up” - it means “letting go”. It means learning how to flow in the waters of life, sometimes the within rapids and if we are blessed and choose to create it as such - bobbing along the adventure in the joyous “brand new every moment” discovery of what is next…the inner tube on the lazy river.

Sometimes we get to lay in the stillness of no movement at all, and look up at the sky, a perfect opportunity for gratitude. Sometimes it rains, and we protect ourselves. Sometimes the sun drizzles its golden rays upon us and tickles our spine until we laugh out loud. This life becomes an adventure within which to invent, explore, create, savor and share.

If we didn’t control life, could we still love it?

Would we really choose to live our entire lives in the literal, mundane, “this is how life demonstrates itself therefore, that’s how I will roll” sort of thinking? How boring would life become if we were convinced that our “my way or the highway” decision about how it will turn out was the exact way it is and will be? If we were aware of it, how much precious life energy would we devote to an endless existence of reruns, the same commercial over and over, one step after the next predictable step. What if we are in charge of this too? Is this what we would choose, if we knew we had a choice?

The soul cringes.

On the other hand, a life lived fearless, without judgment or shoulds - discovered, explored and allowed to unfold…the gift that it beholds could be greater than anything we may have calculated for ourselves. What makes us believe we are so much smarter than the gifts the Universe would compose for us? What if we lived our own personal myth - exactly as it unfolds - if we embraced the metaphors and saw our own truths beneath? How powerful a tool would a metaphor be if we unmasked it?

What would we see…if we were fearless enough to look?

So do we choose the opportunity to decipher the metaphors presented to us at each moment, to look into the mirror at our own personal work on this canvas called life? It is our opportunity to choose between living with our historical self (hauling around our baggage) or live each moment anew.

Can we take our (metaphoric) hints and giggle in the mirror while we create our own personal works of art called “self” - our lives from the pallet of infinite possibility? Do we want to live in baggage claim at the airport, or do we choose to live in the gallery of life?

--dar freeland
faceupstudio.com

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Overload


"Blahg_Somebody Needs to Play" by Dar Freeland
images & text © 2000 Dar Freeland | all rights reserved

I need a recess. I'm pretty sure that is all I need to write on the subject.

NEXT.

--dar freeland
faceupstudio.com

Friday, August 13, 2010

Stains


"Brew Ha Ha" by Dar Freeland
images & text © 1997-2011 dar freeland | all rights reserved

Relating can be such a challenge this moment in time. Discussions seem fiery and combative, our moods are curt and our stability in the storms around us seem rickety at best. It all feels like a good balancing act is required to keep things mindful and at peace.

How much do we absorb the negativity around us? The first response I hear most often - is that "I don't listen to that stuff or let it affect me...". I believe this to be a thought, versus an actual experience that is conscious. No one really wants to see the level of unhappy that is surrounding humanity right now - yet to deny it exists, makes us part of the problem instead of the source of the solution. "Down" thinking is pervasive at every turn right now - and we need to start looking up, fast. It doesn't mean that to acknowledge our reactions - we are somehow giving up our power or admitting defeat; we are not even taking responsibility - only saying, "ya know, I did feel a little lower after that exchange...maybe I should change things up a bit". If we admit that a thing is negative, even if it is someone or something we love, we aren't betraying it - we are finding a solution to the pain of it, and this is the first necessary step. We absorb, and we don't even know it. For your "evidence", watch a child - they absorb EVERYTHING. The only change that happens with age, is we become capable of spinning our perceptions and words into denial and reasons. We are still absorbing.

For example...the white lace doily from my departed Grandmother's kitchen - it didn't ASK or INTEND to absorb the spilled coffee that made its way into the fabric, and is there now FOR LIFE. It didn't ask or consciously choose, but because of its position and proximity to the spilled coffee, it did what it does without thought or intention, it absorbed the spilled coffee. It is in fact the doily's nature to do so, since it absorbs as a general rule.

We are no different. We absorb what is in our proximity, whether or not we think we do. Our ego will tell us, "hey, got a handle on that" - but it simply does not. Our ego's job is to protect us - and it will tell us everything is under control so we feel secure, but it cannot stop a doily from doily-ing. We are absorption machines, and other people's opinions, silent or spoken judgments and criticisms, praises, put-downs, and general doomsday rhetoric - all makes it into the weave of our psyche and has an impact and eventual consequence. If we are mindful, and watch the results (carrying on a yelling tone with others ie.) - link them properly with their sources, then we have the understanding and power to consciously choose what we want or don't want to absorb.

The world is a toxic place right now, and we need to make clear that our focus, is on removing our precious selves from that toxicity - before we are in fact stained for good.

We can still love coffee, without spilling it down our shirt.

--dar freeland
faceupstudio.com